A14 to get SPECS and 60 limit.
Discussion
BBC1 Look East news tonight had feature on the A14.
The A14 is to get SPECS and a 60mph limit between Huntingdon and Cambridge next year. It is hoped this will reduce accidents.
Most of the motorists interviewed thought this was a bad idea as slower speeds increase congestion,and some suggested widening this stretch of road.
This makes a change from BBC Look Easts last effort a few weeks back when all those interviewed thought speed cameras were great
The A14 is to get SPECS and a 60mph limit between Huntingdon and Cambridge next year. It is hoped this will reduce accidents.
Most of the motorists interviewed thought this was a bad idea as slower speeds increase congestion,and some suggested widening this stretch of road.
This makes a change from BBC Look Easts last effort a few weeks back when all those interviewed thought speed cameras were great
ledfoot said:
BBC1 Look East news tonight had feature on the A14.
The A14 is to get SPECS and a 60mph limit between Huntingdon and Cambridge next year. It is hoped this will reduce accidents.
Most of the motorists interviewed thought this was a bad idea as slower speeds increase congestion,and some suggested widening this stretch of road.
This makes a change from BBC Look Easts last effort a few weeks back when all those interviewed thought speed cameras were great
AAARRGGGHHHHHH !!!!!!!!
Firstly, there are FOUR cameras each way already ; it's only about 10 miles and it's already bloody dangerous because of the panic & ripple braking.
Frequently it is just a solid mass of moving traffic - like at rush hour except most of the time.
The road is a bloody deathtrap. The reason is it's a D2 with *ALL* the A1/M11 and A14 traffic. It wasn't very nice before the A14 existed, it's horrendous now.
The scameras there have increased the accidents so what do the feckers do? Add more cameras 
The problem is that the road is inadequate for the volume of traffic and the sliproads are short.
How about this for a brainwave? Spend some of the
millions you fleece off us in road tax on the roads you cock sucking brain dead bunch of wits.
The problem is that the road is inadequate for the volume of traffic and the sliproads are short.
How about this for a brainwave? Spend some of the
millions you fleece off us in road tax on the roads you cock sucking brain dead bunch of wits.I use other bits of the A14 very regularly so all this will cause me to do is boot it even more than I already do in the clear sections.. oh and by the way whoever decided to put the blatant money grabbing scamera in on the three lane stretch just before the A11 Junction - good luck to you. Already on my Gps detector... 
Hmmm isn't this stretch due for widening to three lanes to reduce congestion & accidents. So they'll take out the saftey cameras after doing that will they...
This is a major pain - I regularly travel down this stretch on my way to/from Birmingham really early in the morning & then really late, avoiding any traffic. Now it looks like I'll have to do it all on my own at 60mph. Marvellous.
This is a major pain - I regularly travel down this stretch on my way to/from Birmingham really early in the morning & then really late, avoiding any traffic. Now it looks like I'll have to do it all on my own at 60mph. Marvellous.
Well blow me down with a feather, perhaps some of the road tax, geddit ROAD tax was put back into improving these death traps the better, or shall we add a few more scameras in the name of 'safety'
I got news for you, deaths have risen since cameras were added so more ain't gonna work, oh, and SPECS? people will be watching their speedos even more now so wait for the deaths to rise.
I got news for you, deaths have risen since cameras were added so more ain't gonna work, oh, and SPECS? people will be watching their speedos even more now so wait for the deaths to rise.
Worst thing is, a couple of million squid was spent on the A14 fairly recently, when a new layby was installed.
Installed and then quickly closed off as it was in a dangerous position just before a slip road.
What's the point of a dual carriageway with a 60 limit?
I travel up the A14 all the time, but living between Huntingdon and Cambridge, I know when not to (between the hours of 6am and 2am). More speed cameras will just encourage me to use the smaller roads around the A14, I mean, Papworth may be a 40 limit, but with no "safety" cameras, I'll assume it's safe to exceed that.
I'm also surprised at the decision to increase the number of cameras as it is quite rare to be able to exceed 50 on that stretch of road.
Question, if speed is the problem, how come the M11 up the road is so much safer with fewer accidents when the average speed is much higher?
Simple: only half the traffic from the A14 travels down the M11, the other half continues on the A14. Sheer volume of traffic is obviously the only problem, so we have two solutions. Widen the A14, or take the freight off the road and put it back on the railways, where it belongs. If you cannnot see this, then stop breathing because you are stealing MY air, and you do not deserve a place on this planet.
(oops, stress of trying to find a new car creeping in)
Installed and then quickly closed off as it was in a dangerous position just before a slip road.
What's the point of a dual carriageway with a 60 limit?
I travel up the A14 all the time, but living between Huntingdon and Cambridge, I know when not to (between the hours of 6am and 2am). More speed cameras will just encourage me to use the smaller roads around the A14, I mean, Papworth may be a 40 limit, but with no "safety" cameras, I'll assume it's safe to exceed that.
I'm also surprised at the decision to increase the number of cameras as it is quite rare to be able to exceed 50 on that stretch of road.
Question, if speed is the problem, how come the M11 up the road is so much safer with fewer accidents when the average speed is much higher?
Simple: only half the traffic from the A14 travels down the M11, the other half continues on the A14. Sheer volume of traffic is obviously the only problem, so we have two solutions. Widen the A14, or take the freight off the road and put it back on the railways, where it belongs. If you cannnot see this, then stop breathing because you are stealing MY air, and you do not deserve a place on this planet.
(oops, stress of trying to find a new car creeping in)
they implemented specs on the stocksbridge bypass (sheffield area) a couple of years ago - i use the route often to get to/from manchester airport and they are a real pain - stuck behind lorries doing 60mph, on an otherwise clear road, but you can't even risk spending a few seconds overtaking because of knowledge in doing so you may raise your average speed to above 60mph and so be done by the specs. they are far more predatory than gatsos and i am sure we will see a lot more of these average speed buggers.
as if gatsos and talivans weren't bad enough ...
as if gatsos and talivans weren't bad enough ...
sultanbrown said:
snipped ........Widen the A14, or take the freight off the road and put it back on the railways, where it belongs. If you cannnot see this, then stop breathing because you are stealing MY air, and you do not deserve a place on this planet.
(oops, stress of trying to find a new car creeping in)
Do you eat, do you drink? If you do, it came by lorry, if you stop shopping almost entirely, be my guest. Railways don't have the capacity for an uplift in freight traffic anyway (Network rail prices freight of rail and the government has binned any Railfreight grants taking long distance traffic off the roads) and it would only increase urban traffic and cost vastly more.
Lorry goes straight from A to D.
Railfreight goes from A to B via lorry and gets unloaded and returns empty the goods gets moved from B to C by rail gets unloaded and then an empty lorry drives to C and loads to move the goods from C to D by road.
Lots of handling (this is what costs mega money and time), extra damage, lots of empty running and lots of extra cost to have an inferior service. Railfreight is only economically and enviromentally viable for distances over 200 miles and there aren't many of those in the UK.
The option to go for of course is to widen the A14 and stop new development near the widened road, new development uses up the road capacity too quickly by creating new traffic to slow the now quicker road. Look at almost all the M25 or the M40 around Warwick or J26 of M62 which are used for short commutes rather than a way of going long distances between Cities quickly.
Yes, I do understand that we have removed ourselves from the option of rail use, but only because it would now be too expensive in anything other than the extremely long term. What really gets my goat is the amount of time and money wasted on discussing this ridiculous guided bus scheme. From the offset, the inventor of the guided bus pointed out that it is entirely unsuitable for this application, and the Huntingdon to Cambridge bus service is already excellent. I don't see how removing 3 to 4 busses an hour is going to change the situation, when there will still be hundreds of lorries using the road in the same time frame.
sultanbrown said:
Widen the A14, or take the freight off the road and put it back on the railways, where it belongs.
This viewpoint does tend to ignore the reality that freight by road is faster and cheaper.
It is a standard bit of GCSE geography.
In the UK, the rail network has been reducing in size since 1930. You may whinge about the Beeching cuts, but that was only a few years in a long drawn out process.
In general, road freight beats rail freight except for high volume / low value goods like coal.
You may even say they get it right on the continent with their nice new TGV trains, but then they only got them by really high tax rates.
VAT at 22 % and / or Income tax at 60 % ?
I think not in the UK.
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